Amid the earthquake rubble, a journey becomes a comic strip.

L'AQUILA – Propped up houses, bars reopened amidst a thousand difficulties, valleys that open up after vertical climbs, squares emptied by silence. For 14 days and 257 kilometers, Roman cartoonist Valerio Barchi walked the "Cammino nelle Terre Mutate," the trail that passes through the towns and cities devastated by the earthquake, from Fabriano to L'Aquila, two of the cities that symbolize the devastation. Tomorrow he will finally arrive in the capital of Abruzzo, at the end of an experience destined to become a comic in 2026, coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the earthquake in Central Italy. A sketchbook, the ever-active Wikiloc app, and shoes worn down by the climbs accompanied the author on a journey that connects communities and towns devastated by the tremors. "When walking, I try not to have expectations," he says. "I let myself be surprised by the landscapes and encounters. Then, little by little, the scenes come together and become history." Starting from Fabriano, the artist visited Castelluccio di Norcia, Arquata del Tronto, Accumoli, and Amatrice, averaging twenty kilometers a day. Before entering L'Aquila, he will pass through the hamlet of Collebrincioni, the last stop before the destination. He had also packed his "tools of the trade"—watercolors—in his backpack, but already on the second stage he had to choose: "Either the drawings or my knee." The encumbrance made itself felt, forcing him to give up and put off painting until later, limiting himself to quick notes and sketches to be transformed into drawings upon his return. Among the places that struck him most was Amatrice, the town in the Rieti province that disappeared in the earthquakes of 2016. On one side, the rubble still looming, on the other, the strength of small communities and associations that keep hope alive. "It's like embers beneath the ashes," he observes, "life that continues despite everything." The stops become moments of listening: in Matelica, Camerino, Norcia, and even in the hardest-hit areas of the Rieti province. Stories collected without a pre-written script, but with the attentiveness of those who walk to observe and understand. "Eventually, I'll have to find a common thread. Maybe it will come right on the last leg, entering L'Aquila," he explains. Born in Rome in 1985, Barchi lived abroad for fourteen years: as a postman in the Netherlands, a waiter in Istanbul, a street artist in Taiwan. Upon returning to Italy, he chose watercolor as the medium to narrate his travels. He has created works such as "Ginostra," "Bona Via!", "Fogarina," "Fango," and "Agata fuori le mura." This isn't the first time he's transformed a journey into a comic: he's already done so with the Via Francigena, narrated in panels that blend history, encounters, and landscapes (such as "Bona Via!"). This time, the challenge linked to the Walk was born in a university laboratory dedicated to social planning, which from the beginning had placed the memory of the earthquake-stricken communities at the center. "I know little about the L'Aquila earthquake because I was in India at the time," Barchi admits. "I know about the Student House, the collapses, the basilica, but not how the earthquake affected daily life in the years that followed. I'm here to understand." To see with your own eyes and draw with your own fingers.